Towing my jeep

I am thinking of towing my 1970 CJ5 3 speed behind my cabover camper dully set up. I am wondering the best way to do it. I assume everything in nuetral and secure the steering wheel ? Any suggestions ? Also, should I consider the ability to have the jeep brakes tied into the dully braking system or is that even possible. When I used to tow a trailer the trailer brakes were tied into vehicle brakes. I am looking at towing it about 1500 miles round trip. .........Thanks

 

If you search, this topic has been covered a lot.

Towing the Jeep with all four wheels on the ground is called 'flat towing.' You'll need a towbar, safety chain and lights. The steering wheel needs to be free - the front wheels will turn and track with the tow vehicle turning.

The safest way is to unlock the front hubs and remove the rear driveshaft. Opinions vary about whether it's ok to leave the rear driveshaft attached. Do a search - you'll find lots of info.

I recall that you can get some gadget that applies the Jeep brakes electrically, but I also recall that a Jeep trailer with brakes can end up costing about the same. Trailers have electric brakes, but they are designed and built to be a slave to the towing vehicle's brakes. There's no easy way to do this with a Jeep AFAIK. I think if you need brakes, you should consider buying a trailer.

 

I always just pop the rear drive shaft off. Takes maybe 10 minutes but mucho peace of mind. I also put the trans and OD in neutral.

 

Ok, so no need to take off the front drive shaft ? Just leave transfer case in N and hubs on free ? and keep the steering wheel free.

Do any of you guys tow your jeep behind a truck with a cabover camper. Just wondering if I need to worry about braking. I have seen quite a few people towing jeeps behing campers. I have a 04 Chevy dully and I carry a 3000 lb camper. I am not sure how much my jeep weighs..............Thanks

 

Hard to say on braking. Depends on the stopping power of your truck w/ camper. A test tow is likely in order.

M

 

I flat tow mine behind both a '91 K-3500 and an '06 F-350 with an 11.5 cabover Alpenlite. The longest trip was from SoCal to VA, and I didn't have any problems. In my case with the Warn OD, I just put it in neutral and towed it... no problems. Going over the mountains out west, I found that keeping the truck in 3rd gave the best performance climbing the hills, and down shifting as required helped with braking. Total weight of set-up (truck, camper, jeep and people) was 12.5K. HTH...

 

My Dad and I used to flat tow my Jeeps a lot behind his empty or nearly empty F-250. That was fine for mostly highway miles in sunny CA, but I have not flat towed in a long time.

Your Jeep weighs about 2500 lbs from the factory, and accessories, big tires, camping gear, etc. will increase that past 3000 easily. I think that Jeep spec'd a curb weight of about 2400. We've had threads in the past where members have posted the scale weights of their vehicles, and 2500-3500 seemed to be the range.

 

I tow mine behind my 05 Chevy Colorado. I put the trans in 4th and the transfercase in neutral. In the State of Washington. My Jeep falls under the weight requirement to have a braking system while flat towing.

http://groups.msn.com/ScottMilliner/scottsjeeppictures.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=399

 

Thanks for the good info ! I am guessing the reason to remove the rear drivshaft is to keep the tranny from spinning ? Why not just keeping it in neutral ?

The steering thing has got me baffleed though. Some people tie the wheel and others dont and some use bungy cords so it can move a little. It seems the jeep should track behind the truck without anything but than would have the potential to stay in a turned position after a sharp turn. Has this ever happened to anyone.

I think my rig could handle the weight since the jeep weighs less than 3000 lbs. I have seen many peopkle flat towing jeeps and smalls rigs but I never paid any attention to how they did thier steering wheel. ..................Thanks

 

I have flat towed mine several times behind my Dodge Dakota on 200-250 mile trips, I have saginaw power steering and I don't tie the steering in anyway, it tracks fine on mine. I have towed it on the interstate at 70mph with no problems. I do drop my rear driveshaft now, but only after I towed it about 50 miles and checked the transfercase and realized that it was getting very warm even with all of it in neutral like the FSM said to. For me it was peace of mind and it only takes about 5-10 minutes to drop it.

 

1st
If you don't put the transmission in gear the main shaft could spine. Without the gears turning the bearing could be damaged because of lack of oil.

2nd
Let the steering wheel turn. In a sharp turn you won't drag the tires sideways.

 

The gadget that applies the jeep brakes is called a Brake Buddy. Do an internet search on "dingy brakes" and you will find severals companies selling similar setups. Almost all states now have laws requiring towed trailer brakes. None of the brake systems are cheap - most about $1000. Brake Buddy has an interesting compilation of the towing laws in each state on their website: http://www.brakebuddy.com/Towing-Laws. The physical size of most of these devices means you have to have about 16" between the brake pedal and the seat, so they won't work for under seat fuel tank setups.

Some states have special requirements written, and oddly enough they don't say anything about having trailer brakes. An example Wyoming where whatever you are driving has to be able to stop within 40 feet from 20 mph. I was over at Camper's World looking at a Brake Buddy and a customer there was getting one. Said they were pulling over people at the Canadian border and checking for such, and if you didn't have one they didn't allow you in. If they caught you north of the border with no dingy brakes they were making you uncouple the trailed vehicle and drive it home.

I've been flat towing my jeep behind my '02 F-350 with a 835 Lance.